"Our Exploits at West Poley" was Thomas Hardy's only book for children. Like most of Hardy's work it is set in his native Dorset in the fictitious village of West Poley. It tells the story of how two boys, farmer's son Stephen and his cousin Leonard, discover an underground cave with a fast-flowing stream while out exploring one day. In order to cross the stream, they divert it, only to find that they have diverted West Poley's water supply to the neighbouring village of East Poley. (The action takes place in Victorian times when only the urban rich had piped water; the poor, and rural communities, had to rely on pumps or wells). Trying to set matters right again, the boys with two companions find themselves trapped in the cave with the water rising. A subplot involves a miller's young apprentice and desperate struggle to escape from his unpleasant, bullying master. (Slavery was officially outlawed in England, but some masters treated their apprentices as little more than slaves).
The eighties and nineties were something of a golden age for British period dramas, but Hardy has never been a favourite of the British cinema, either during this period or at any other, much to my disappointment as I am a great admirer of his. "The Mayor of Casterbridge" (I don't count Michael Winterbottom's eccentric Wild West-set "The Claim") and "The Return of the Native" (which was of course made into a TV movie) lover, must count as two of the greatest English novels never to have been made into a feature film, and we had to rely on a Polish-born director working in France to give us a cinematic version of "Tess of the d'Urbervilles". This comparative neglect of one of our greatest novelists may have something to do with the fact that most of his novels deal with the lives of the rural working class and therefore do not give the same scope for elaborate costumes and interiors as do the works of some of his Victorian and Edwardian contemporaries.
I had no idea that "Our Exploits..." had been filmed until I recently came across this version on the "London Live" TV channel. I note that mine is the first review it has received on this site, suggesting that not a lot of other people have heard of it either. It was made as a TV movie and seems to have sunk into obscurity since its initial screening in 1985. At just under an hour in length it is very short, shorter even than most films for children, who have less of an attention span than adults. Although it is officially described as a television film, it is more like an episode from a TV drama series, which have traditionally been based around the "one-hour-minus-commercials" format. (In the 1970s the BBC did make a number of TV dramas based on Hardy stories under the title "Wessex Tales"). Despite its obscurity, however, I felt that the film-makers did a good job in turning this story into a drama, with characters we can identify with and plenty of excitement at the end. The film may have been made for children, but it is never childish, and there is plenty for adults to enjoy too. 7/10
The eighties and nineties were something of a golden age for British period dramas, but Hardy has never been a favourite of the British cinema, either during this period or at any other, much to my disappointment as I am a great admirer of his. "The Mayor of Casterbridge" (I don't count Michael Winterbottom's eccentric Wild West-set "The Claim") and "The Return of the Native" (which was of course made into a TV movie) lover, must count as two of the greatest English novels never to have been made into a feature film, and we had to rely on a Polish-born director working in France to give us a cinematic version of "Tess of the d'Urbervilles". This comparative neglect of one of our greatest novelists may have something to do with the fact that most of his novels deal with the lives of the rural working class and therefore do not give the same scope for elaborate costumes and interiors as do the works of some of his Victorian and Edwardian contemporaries.
I had no idea that "Our Exploits..." had been filmed until I recently came across this version on the "London Live" TV channel. I note that mine is the first review it has received on this site, suggesting that not a lot of other people have heard of it either. It was made as a TV movie and seems to have sunk into obscurity since its initial screening in 1985. At just under an hour in length it is very short, shorter even than most films for children, who have less of an attention span than adults. Although it is officially described as a television film, it is more like an episode from a TV drama series, which have traditionally been based around the "one-hour-minus-commercials" format. (In the 1970s the BBC did make a number of TV dramas based on Hardy stories under the title "Wessex Tales"). Despite its obscurity, however, I felt that the film-makers did a good job in turning this story into a drama, with characters we can identify with and plenty of excitement at the end. The film may have been made for children, but it is never childish, and there is plenty for adults to enjoy too. 7/10
